The ratio will be 1:9
EXPLANATION
The given ratio was
Novels:Essays:Short stories = 2:12:4
Adding all the ratios will give the number that corresponds to the total works she read.
Total ratio is
[tex]2+12+4=18 [/tex]
The required ratio, which is the ratio of Novels to total works read is given by,
[tex]2:18 [/tex]
We can divide each term in the ratio by 2 to obtain,
[tex]1:9 [/tex]
Therefore the ratio of Novels to total books read is 1:9.